Published in the Rains County Leader on April 4, 2024:
It’s hard to believe that I began writing about our trip to Kentucky a month ago and am just now getting to the main attraction of the trip – the Ark itself. We spent two days at the Ark and could easily have spent another day or two.
Before we left home, one of my friends who had already made the trip told me that one of her most memorable experiences was as the shuttle bus from the parking lot rounded a curve and she got her first full view of the Ark. You can read the dimensions of the huge vessel – 510 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet high – and you can look at pictures and videos, but until you see it for yourself, you can’t really comprehend the enormity of it. The marketing material calls it a modern engineering marvel, but the real marvel is how Noah accomplished his task without the benefit of the internal combustion engine. That and how to photograph something of that size with a device that fits in your shirt pocket.
We arrived at the welcome center just in time to watch a thirty-minute video called “The Building of the Ark Encounter.” which answered a lot a lot of our questions but raised even more. Like the Museum, the Ark contains fascinating displays with lots of explanatory reading. Our group was usually spread out with the guys being first through any given section, me being third, and Fawncyne bringing up the rear. Robert wanted me to point out that this was because she read every single word of every display. I was third simply because I’m a slow reader.
The theaters and casual video viewing areas were spaced in such a way as to provide a legitimate reason to sit and rest every once in a while. There was a fun video of an interview with Noah, and another one set in modern times in which the same actress played a reporter who went to the Ark Encounter to interview Ken Hamm, the man behind the project. There was also a very impressive video toward the end of the self-guided tour in which Ray Comfort (an evangelist and street preacher who posts a lot of his evangelistic encounters on YouTube) gives a very powerful gospel presentation. If a person is not a believer after visiting these two venues, it’s not because he hasn’t heard the gospel.
We attended a couple of live lectures, one of which scored close to the bug lecture at the Museum on my “yuck” meter. It was about snakes – and unlike the bugs which were left in their carriers while their pictures were displayed on large screens, these creatures were taken out and displayed in all their creepy, crawly glory. I have to admit that some of them were really pretty – from a distance.
The most interesting lecture, though, was the one about how all the animals fit in the ark. God didn’t choose to give us all the details in the biblical account, but we are told that the pairs of animals were brought in by kind and not by species. For example, Noah was told to include only one general kind of dog instead of a pair of each breed. Scientists also speculate that Noah took younger, smaller animals that would have a longer reproductive life after the ark landed.
It was fascinating to see how the creators of the exhibits imagine that eight people managed to care for an estimated six to seven thousand animals for a year. In this replica, food and water were dispensed through a system of funnels and tubes that reached all three decks and filled containers in the various cages. To get rid of waste most of the cages had slatted floors so the waste dropped into removable trays underneath or into troughs that were sluiced out by a water system fed by cisterns on the roof that collected the rain water. Artistic license was taken in displays showing possible living quarters which were depicted as comfortable and well-appointed. After all, Mrs. Noah had 120 years to pick colors and make throw pillows.
There was more – a lot more. One exhibit showed how dinosaurs could have coexisted with man, and another one laid out evidence that the ice age happened after the flood and was actually an after-effect of the flood. Toward the end, there was a beautiful display that shared stories of how the Bible has spread throughout the world. It would be impossible to even remember much less repeat everything we saw, but if my accounts have piqued your interest, maybe you’ll plan a trip of your own one of these days.
Looking back, one of the best things that came from our trip was the deepening of our friendship with Robert and Fawncyne. At this point, they are gently, and sometimes not so gently, suggesting that it’s time for David and me to become motorcycle riders again. And David is applying gentle pressure of his own to convince them that motorcycles can be used for more than short day trips. Stay tuned. I think there may be more travel columns in my future.
Blessings,
Linda
Linda Brendle's Life After Caregiving 
Comments on: "The Ark Encounter | by Linda Brendle" (2)
Makes me want to go there!
Nancy
Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S21 5G, an AT&T 5G smartphone
It was an amazing experience!